CVE-2023-53178
CVE-2023-53178CVE-2023-53178
linux / linux_kernel
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm: fix zswap writeback race condition
The zswap writeback mechanism can cause a race condition resulting in
memory corruption, where a swapped out page gets swapped in with data that
was written to a different page.
The race unfolds like this:
1. a page with data A and swap offset X is stored in zswap
2. page A is removed off the LRU by zpool driver for writeback in
zswap-shrink work, data for A is mapped by zpool driver
3. user space program faults and invalidates page entry A, offset X is
considered free
4. kswapd stores page B at offset X in zswap (zswap could also be
full, if so, page B would then be IOed to X, then skip step 5.)
5. entry A is replaced by B in tree->rbroot, this doesn't affect the
local reference held by zswap-shrink work
6. zswap-shrink work writes back A at X, and frees zswap entry A
7. swapin of slot X brings A in memory instead of B
The fix:
Once the swap page cache has been al
Scoring
| CVSS | 7.8 () |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| Last modified | 2026-08-04 |